Beyond the marketing purposes, storytelling is also useful as a leadership skill to motivate employees or other stakeholders to become engaged with the destination’s mission purpose. So long as the destination needs to engage a large network of stakeholders and build a new culture of cooperation and innovation, storytelling is a key strategy to sell the vision and convince stakeholders of the need for a culture change to accomplish the mission.
Stories can change our way of thinking and influence our feelings. They can drive an organizational culture change by opening people’s minds and building capacity of mutual understanding to enhance cooperation. They also have the power to make people envision a better future and how to overcome all the obstacles. Stories are pull strategy, as they allow people to decide by themselves, which is a key success factor of effective influence.
The art of persuasion consists of uniting ideas with emotions, and emotions are best conveyed through the form of a compelling story. Arousing the audience’s emotions spurs energy in them and moves them to take action. This is the power of storytelling.
Do you remember any story that moved you to change your attitude on a certain issue?
